I. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to visualization. More particularly, this invention relates to visualization and manipulation of a real 3-D object using image acquisition and video compression.
II. Description of the Related Art
The essential goal of visualizing a real 3-D object is to render an image of the object depending on the user's view angle. Traditionally, this has been in the realm of computer graphics where images are rendered based on object models, be it mesh or otherwise. The trouble with this existing paradigm is that the rendering process is computationally expensive. Although there exist sub-optimal methods that can speed up the rendering process, these are basically based on approximations such as enlarging the grid/mesh elements. These approaches naturally result in rendered images that are less-than-real, especially for natural complex objects that are difficult to model.
Most of conventional visualization paradigms follow essentially a two-step process: modeling and rendering. First, the modeling step involves the extraction and storage of parameters describing the object. Second, the rendering step renders the image (preferably in real-time) based on the stored object parameters as the user requests a certain view of the object. Although the modeling step may be performed off-line and thus is amenable to extremely complicated algorithms, the rendering step must be performed real-time for realistic manipulation of objects. However, in general, the rendering process for natural complex objects cannot be performed on the client side, as most clients on the Web are PCs with limited computational bandwidth. The placement of the rendering step on the server side (e.g., a supercomputer) does not solve the problem either, as it will limit the number of simultaneous rendering requests the server may be able to service.